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Facebook Addiction Leads To Ten Years In Prison For Arizona Man. Facebook Like Can Get You Fired, Says Judge. Your First Amendment rights are probably the last thing you think about when you click the Like button on Facebook.

But just in case you were wondering, that innocent little blue thumbs-up logo is not constitutionally protected free speech. At least, not according to a district court judge in Virginia, who was the first to decide such a question in federal court. The case before Judge Raymond Jackson was this: a local sheriff had fired six of his employees, some because their actions "hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office," according to the New York Times. One of those employees, it turned out, had clicked the Like button on the page of the sheriff's political opponent. That may sound like a firing offense. SEE ALSO: How Facebook Will Fix Its Like Button Problem So Jackson threaded the needle this way: He said the Like button isn't the same as expressing yourself verbally.

"Simply liking a Facebook page is insufficient," the judge wrote.
Facebook Will Pay $10 Million To Make Its 'Sponsored Stories' Problem Go Away. State Law Requires Sex Offenders to List Status on Facebook. Louisiana has enacted a new law requiring sex offenders and child predators to disclose their criminal status on their Facebook and other social networking profiles.

The law — a first of its kind in the U.S. — says sex offenders must include the crime for which they were convicted, the jurisdiction of their conviction, a description of their physical characteristics and a residential address within their profile.
Judge Dislikes Facebook's 'Sponsored Stories' Settlement. STUDY: Bullies Outnumber Victims 4:1 On Facebook. Only about half of all parents are aware of cyberbullying incidents involving their children, in part because more kids are accessing Facebook using chat applications and cell phones away from their family.

A joint survey by SocialShield and comScore of 2,000 parents with children between the ages of eight and 17 reveals that only about nine percent of parents reported knowing about cyberbullying involving their kids, while other data shows that as many as twice that number of children claim to be the victims of cyberbullying. For example, a survey by the Cyberbullying Research Center found that 21 percent of children claim to have been victimized by cyberbullying, and a Pew Research Center report found that as many as 15 percent of teenagers have had “online meanness” directed at them.

One reason adults may be in the dark about bullying behavior is a result of how they use the social networking site. Following are the highlights:
Facebook Murder-For-Hire Plot Lands Two People in Prison. A murder-for-hire plot that started with a Facebook message resulted in a prison sentence for Ohio residents Christine Metter and her 77-year-old father.

Metter stared at the courtroom floor on Thursday when a judge sentenced her to 10 years in prison for attempting to hire a man on Facebook to kill her ex-husband. Metter, 41, of Ohio and her father Al Zombory, 77, were convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder in January. Zombory was sentenced to nine years in prison on Tuesday. It all started with a conversation Metter had on Facebook with a friend from high school. Metter complained about her ex-husband to the friend, saying he had custody of her oldest daughter and planned to fight for custody of the other three children. Sabo, a former Army Ranger, agreed to meet Metter and her father for dinner. After the dinner, Sabo contacted the local police department.

Facebook Denies Looking At Your Text Messages. Facebook denied a report Monday from the UK's Sunday Times that the company is reading text messages sent by users that have installed its popular app on their mobile phones.

"The Sunday Times has done some creative conspiracy theorizing but the suggestion that we’re secretly reading people’s texts is ridiculous,” said Iian Mackenzie, Facebook's head of European communications in a post entitled "Today's Bad Journalism.
" An earlier report in the Sunday Times suggested that Facebook was ogling users' private texts based on the Facebook for Android app's permissions. Those permissions seem to allow the Facebook app to view text messages stored on the installer's phone.
Yahoo threatens Facebook as patent war looms. Apr Wei-Yin Chen starts strong, offense wakes up in Orioles' 7-1 win over Rays In the eyes of Orioles manager Buck Showalter, left-hander Wei-Yin Chen battled some tough luck in his first two starts of the season.

He pitched well enough to win, his skipper said, but was victimized by seeing-eye hits that led to some early exits.... searching... loading... advertisement Contact Us Subscribe Manage Subscription Site Map Advertise Mobile/Apps A Tribune Newspaper website Advanced Search Advanced Search. Patent Wars: Yahoo Claims Facebook Is Infringing. Did Yahoo! Tip The Press To Force Facebook's Hand In Patent Dispute?
Yahoo is playing the press while trying to force Facebook into licensing between 10 and 20 of its patents.

Yahoo is making fairly standard claims in Web tech circles: that a hotter, younger company is infringing on patents Yahoo registered years ago and now needs to cut the former Web behemoth in on some of the action. But how Yahoo is going about its fight reads more like the script from a political thriller, complete with reportedly dropping a dime to the New York Times. "Yahoo contacted us the same time they called The New York Times and so we haven't had the opportunity to fully evaluate their claims," Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for Facebook, said in a statement to the newspaper in other media outlets. Publicly, neither company is commenting on the patent dispute but the Times, which appears to have inside access to the story, quoted unnamed sources as saying the two companies met Monday.
Yahoo To Facebook: Pay Up for Your Patents.

Yahoo wants Facebook to start paying for its right to use various Internet technologies that Yahoo says it holds patents for.

If Yahoo aggressively pursues a strategy of asserting its intellectual-property rights, it could lead to a new phase of patent wars, this one involving some of the biggest names in social networking. In a statement first reported by The New York Times, Yahoo told Mashable it "has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property.

" "We have invested substantial resources into these innovations," the statement continued. "We must insist that Facebook either enter into a licensing agreement or we will be compelled to move forward unilaterally to protect our rights.”
Hollywood Pressures D.C. Lobbyists To Cut Ties With Facebook. Three of the four Washington, D.C. lobbying firms Facebook had hired abruptly terminated their contracts with the social networking giant.

Citing conflicts of interest, Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, the Glover Park Group and TeleMedia Policy Group have all walked away from contracts with Facebook, which upped its spending on lobbying efforts to $1.4 million last year from $351,000 in 2010. While all of the firms and Facebook declined comment, Politico is reporting that the firms are siding with content providers over Internet firms in the growing battle on Capitol Hill. Only one firm, Elmendorf Ryan, remains under contract with Facebook, according to Senate filings.

But the Palo Alto, Calif.
-based firm probably won't have to look hard to replace the three firms that left; with a initial public offering in the works that could value the company at more than $100 billion, D.C. lobbyists see Facebook as being flush with cash.
Student who Hacked into Facebook Employee Account Gets Jail Time. A 26-year-old software development student will spend eight months in jail for hacking Facebook, which his judge said could have been "utterly disastrous" for the company.

Glenn Mangham hacked a Facebook employee's account last spring from his parents' home in Britain. He gained access to valuable intellectual property, although he didn't sell the information. Mangham, who described himself to a London court as a computer nerd who didn't mean any harm, told the jury he hacked Facebook to help the social media company find holes in its security.
You Can't Sue Family Over Unwanted Facebook Photos, Says Judge. Whether we look too young, too old or too inebriated, we've all been there — tagged in unflattering Facebook photos. But if you're thinking of filing a lawsuit about it, think again. Uploading an unflattering photo is not grounds for a harassment suit, a Minnesota district court has ruled.

Judge Strikes Down Law Banning Sexual Offenders from Facebook - Law Blog. Facebook Wins Three-Year-Old Suit Against Power.com. In yet another example of our speedy justice system, Facebook was declared the winner of a lawsuit originally filed in December 2008 against Power Ventures and Power.com, which accessed and stored users’ login information without permission. Bloomberg reported that U.S. District Judge James Ware ruled in favor of the social network, and the next step will be a hearing on damages.

Meanwhile, time has not been kind to Cayman Islands-based Power Ventures, as Bloomberg reported that Power.com is on the block.
Juror Jailed For 'Friending' Defendant on Facebook. Facebook Takes the Fight Against Clickjacking to the Courts. Facebook is turning to the courts to fight the "clickjacking" scourge which sometimes plagues the social networking site.
Facebook Spent More than $1 Million on Lobbying in 2011 [REPORT]
Facebook Inc. contributed $1.35 million to lobby various tech-related efforts last year, breaking the $1 million mark for the first time. During the last quarter of 2011, Facebook donated $440,000, targeting issues including international regulation of software companies and restrictions on Internet access by foreign governments.

Facebook continually lobbies for online security measures for private industry, data storage, online safety for Internet users, the Do Not Track Kids Act, proposed amendment to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 to protect personal information of children, the Video Privacy Protection Act and various patent legislation. SEE ALSO: ‘We The Lobby’ Crowdsources Funds for an Anti-SOPA Lobby This immense lobbying effort follows Facebook's expansion of the Public Policy Facebook team based in Washington, D.C. last year.

The company hired former George W.
Some Scolding, No Fines For Facebook After Irish Privacy Investigation. Privacy Lawsuit Over Facebook Like Ads Can Proceed. Facebook Goes After IsAnyoneUp, A Porn Site That Features Its Users' Profiles. Anonymous to Shut Down Facebook On Nov. 5 or Maybe Not. Anonymous, a group of hacker activists, have made a mysterious career out of big game hunting. The group, or hackers purporting to be part of Anonymous, have previously attacked targets such as Bank of America, Sony and even government sites. Now, the group may be targeting Facebook on Nov. 5. The bad news is Anonymous is probably good enough to take down the social network, if only for a brief while, if they felt like it.
Anonymous Targets Facebook For A January 28 Attack.